The Jayhawks, Big 12 and Kansas City.

I’ve always tried to take my son to the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City for his March Birthday. At the end of February, I got online to the Sprint Center ticket office. I was unable to find two seats together in the lower level.

I tried the other ticket outlets and was able to get two behind the Basket. I paid more for these two tickets than I’ve ever paid for any basketball game in my life.

I had to go down to the Ambassador hotel on 11th and Grand to get the tickets yesterday. I have never been in the the Ambassador Hotel before and I have lived in Kansas City for 70 years. It was a very high class swanky refurbished version reflecting the gentrification of the new downtown.

A college guy in an ISU t-shirt came to the lobby and gave me my tickets. He said that if I wanted to buy tickets for the evening session, which featured WVU vs Baylor and Tech vs Texas or ISU,
that I could get many lower level tickets that he would sell for $20.

Besides KSU and ISU, the rest of the conference, ie (schools from the state of Texas) don’t really travel that well. The tournament failed in Dallas, because the same thing happened in their own state.

I’m very happy that the Tourney is in my home town, don’t get me wrong, but KC wins this by default. Yes, they did build the downtown Sprint Center and added many beautiful downtown hotels to secure the venue for many more years, but most Kansas fans spend their entertainment money in KC anyway. We are spoiled being Jayhawk fans, watching our team play in front of a packed arena for every game, but I hate seeing empty seats for first and second round games in my town, other than KU, on national TV.

Watching a game on TV has a thousand more visual benefits than sitting in a 29,000 seat arena. But the excitement aspect is ten times greater in person. You become part of the experience and you have a job and an investment to get your team to the performance level that only a home crowd can give.

This was what I was ruminating about as I drove home yesterday from the Ambassador Hotel.

@wrwlumpy I’ve only been to the Big12 tournament once; my wife and I attended all the games. It was interesting to watch the crowd as much as the games when KU wasn’t playing. Luckily that year it played out perfect as KU got to whoop up on Hoiberg’s boys and then complete the three game sweep of KSU in the championship game.

@JayHawkFanToo Of course you are right about the number of seats.I too was at the Canadian game. It was the middle of the summer before the World Games in Korea. Lawrence only had the few summer school students.

Not many conference tournaments draw that well. With travel opps for the big dance coming up, many fans with limited time/funds/or both would rather spend it on games that matter.

Interestingly, I learned that the most important game of the year, the NC, sees a buyers market. I saw KU-UK for 100 bucks for two tickets back in 2012. Lots of fans sell tickets when their team loses Saturdays. The same is true for regional finals, and I suppose it might even be the same for conference tournaments. Championship games are ripe for the picking as long as you can catch fans leaving whose teams just lost in the semis.

ISU, KSU, and KU fans all show up in droves. There is a small group of Texas fans than all wear matching sweaters that come each year. The rest of the fan bases were more sporadic, there were even some pissed MU fans lurking about…

I imagine Texas or Oklahoma teams are expected to win more will travel. Anyone go when Hield was there? How was the OU crowd then (at a non-KU game), because it was unimpressive when I went - 1/2 full, quiet during the afternoon session. You could hear more ISU fans bitching about KU getting calls (KU wasn’t playing) than OU fans cheering.

@Crimsonorblue22 It’s really silly at this point, they brought up their resumes and they are nearly identical. OSU has now beat them 2 of 3 times while winning 4 of 5 meanwhile OU has only won 4 of their last 15 games. Both teams have 6 top 25 wins @dylans so that’s not good enough IMO.

I wonder how the other OU players are feeling? Anyone hear anything about their attitude over the last couple of weeks? I thought Lattin might have a pre career somewhere, maybe overseas, but he didn’t show much this year (by design?)

@Texas-Hawk-10 I meant Trae Young had a ticker about his wonderful self on ESPN for awhile. Trae Young has his stats pop live during games he isn’t in. ESPN’s halftime shows would highlight Trae Young in games he wasn’t playing in. Trae Young has a college team in Norman that he runs according to ESPN, I forget what they’re called.

Not that ESPN will demand that the great Trae Young play in the NCAA tournament directly.

There is a small group of Texas fans than all wear matching sweaters that come each year.

I know the ones with the “matching sweaters”. As a group they are all season ticket holders here at UT and one of them is still the senior attorney in the real estate group that I worked with all those years. Another guy is a guy who owns a construction company here in Austin and was a client that I worked with all the time. We had fun going back and forth when KU played UT. They’ve done this many many years and are loyal when going to Big 12 Tourney. They as a group got to go to AFH and take a tour 4 years ago and the senior attorney brought me back some swag from there. Each year I got something from him. Another cool thing is the senior attorney is a Board Member for McDonald Observatory and one year about 18 years ago I asked him if he could bring me back any printed articles (as I am also a huge space fan) and every year after that I got a 11x17 or bigger photo of a stellar space shot from Hubble from his 2 trips there each year for the board meetings. Nothing but love for him. I always liked to look for them in the crowd and it was easy to spot because of the matching sweaters

Both teams blew lots of chances. Close game and both teams are now solidly in; add KU, TTU and WVU and that is 5 teams and counting. OU is now #11 and in the play in game…oh how the mighty have fallen…😂

If you want loyalty get a dog; better yet, get two just in case one turns on you.

I’m mixed on the whole OU/OSU tourney bubble stuff. Frankly, I don’t think either deserve to play in the tourney, but for the sake of the B12, at this point OSU seems to edge out OU. I just can’t reward OU after their current body of play. I say send OU to the NIT and reward OSU’s latest play. Having said that, I think OSU loses games in the tourney that OU would likely win. It’s a hard decision and glad the committee gets to do their job on selection Sunday.

It’s interesting that we and most folks agreed that any team could win the B12 tournament but there hasn’t been an upset to this point. Tech and WVU spilt regular season games while being tied for second so whomever wins that isn’t a upset.

@BShark It has been puzzling me for some time, but I finally figured out who “Marsha” reminds me of. Have you ever seen that commercial where the man begins to start acting like his mother? Marsha reminds me of somebody’s mother.

Not only do I predict KU games, but I also am amazing at picking 1 seeds over 16 seeds. My record was perfect until those Virginia Hoo Hoos went and spoiled it. 135-1 is still pretty good.

@BShark It has been puzzling me for some time, but I finally figured out who “Marsha” reminds me of. Have you ever seen that commercial where the man begins to start acting like his mother? Marsha reminds me of somebody’s mother.

He reminds me of a

A wealthy oligarch and two working-class dudes, one black one white, sit at a table with ten cookies.

The oligarch grabs nine cookies for himself then says to the white dude, "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"